


Six Geese a-Laying

by cissamione



Series: Twelve Days of Christmas [6]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 13:27:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17224907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cissamione/pseuds/cissamione
Summary: Vanessa and Charity find some goose eggs on a family walk in the spring.





	Six Geese a-Laying

**Author's Note:**

> So this takes into account Vanessa's stabbing, but it doesn't go into detail. Also, having six geese actually laying eggs seemed a little unrealistic, because that would mean twelve geese total because geese mate for life, so i went with six eggs instead.  
> Enjoy!

Vanessa leaned into Charity’s embrace as they walked slowly through the park, next to the river. Her wounds were healed, but she wasn’t anywhere near as physically fit as she used to be, after all, she had been stuck in bed for over a month, and spent the next month and a half being coddled and fussed over by Charity, who barely let her make herself a cuppa. Noah was walking ahead of them, playing on his phone with his headphones in, and Moses and Johnny were darting all over, chasing each other and playing so happily, it brought smiles to both Vanessa and Charity’s faces.

The crunch of the gravel underfoot ceased as Vanessa stopped walking and pulled Charity’s body close. “I love you, Charity. I never thought a year ago that I’d be going on a family walk, with you and our boys.” Vanessa lifted on to her tiptoes and kissed Charity tenderly.

“Bet you never thought you’d be recovering from a stabbing, either, eh?” Charity said softly, and Vanessa could see in her eyes the pain that even the thought of what happened brought to her. Sometimes, she thought that mentally, Charity had the harder time, having to see Vanessa in critical condition in hospital, in a coma for over a week, in and out of surgery, barely able to sit up or feed herself. She didn’t know how she’d have coped if their positions had been reversed, but she knew it wouldn’t have looked much like coping.

Vanessa let out a little laugh. “No, that wasn’t part of my master plan. This? This was.”

Charity kissed her gently as they heard the boys running towards them. “I love you too, Ness.”

“Mummy! Mummy!” Moses shouted as he raced ahead of shorter Johnny.

“Yeah, babe? Charity shifted her gaze from Vanessa to Moses as he skidded to a stop, followed moments later by Johnny.

“Mummy, show.” Moses reached up and took Vanessa’s hand, the closest hand as Charity’s were up around Vanessa’s neck. He pulled her and Vanessa smiled as she followed along, letting Johnny pull her by her other hand, off the track and into the bushes.

“Boys, careful, not too fast.” Charity warned them, and her protectiveness warmed Vanessa’s heart. “Mummy’s still a little bit hurt, okay?”

Moses nodded quickly, but his pressure was still strong on her hand. Johnny looked up at his mother, their matching eyes meeting. “Sorry, Mummy.” His little voice was high and earnest.

“It’s alright sweetheart.” Vanessa squeezed his little hand in hers gently. “What do you and Moz have to show us then?”

Moses darted back, letting go of Vanessa’s hand in favour of grabbing Charity’s and pulling her closer, making sure she could see as Johnny led Vanessa over. “Eggs, Mummy. Big eggs.” Johnny said, looking up at Vanessa and Charity.

“EGGS, EGGS, EGGS!” Moses yelled.

“They are. But we’ve got to be careful and not touch them, okay?” Vanessa asked them, and both boys looked at her and nodded sincerely, then looked back to the six palm sized eggs.

“What’s the hold-” Noah began so say as he walked over to them, but he stopped suddenly. “Ness? I think it’s hurt.” He was stood a few metres away on the other side of a shrub, and his face was creased with concern as he pulled out his headphones.

“What is?” Vanessa asked, walking over to Noah, Charity’s had steadying her elbow on the uneven grass.

“I don’t know.” Noah answered, stepping back as Vanessa got closer. “But you’ve got to do something. You’re a vet, surely you know how to fix it.”

Vanessa looked carefully over the goose, keeping a safe distance as Charity grabbed Moses and Johnny’s hands and held them back. “It’s a gander, a male goose. Those must be it’s eggs.” She looked to Noah. “Ganders guard the goose as she incubates the eggs, but she must have gone to feed, and he’s been attacked by a dog, or something.”

“But you can fix him?” Noah pressed, and Vanessa could see how much he was still a child, wanting everything to be immediately fixable. She caught Charity’s eye, and she could see that Charity was moved by the plight of the gander, Vanessa didn’t think Charity was ever as hard-hearted as she pretended to be.

She looked back to Noah. “We’d need to sedate him to get him to the surgery and examine him. There’s no way your mum or I could carry him. Paddy’s away, and Rhona’s the only one with access to the sedatives, and she could never lift him either.” Vanessa problem-solved out loud. “But Pete probably could. I’ll call Rhona and ask.” She pulled her phone out and stepped away as she began to talk to Rhona.

Charity sidled closer to Noah, letting go of Johnny’s hand, trusting that he was less likely of the two to run up to the gander, to wrap her arm around Noah’s shoulders. “It’ll be alright, you know?”

Noah leaned slightly into her, but he kept his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “Whatever.” He mumbled.

Charity kissed his temple. “You’ll be taller than me soon, kid. Already taller than Ness.”

“Not hard, that.” Charity smiled as she saw her son’s lips curve up a little into a semi smile of their own.

“Oi, cheeky.” Charity ruffled his hair and he ducked away, running his fingers through it to fix the messy look he spent so long on every morning. She reached out and took Johnny’s hand again as he began to inch forwards. “No, Johnnybobs, we’ve got to stay back.”

“Rhona says she and Pete will be here soon. They’ve got to get the ketamine from the surgery first, but they won’t be long.” Vanessa said as she came up between Charity and Noah. “She reckons once she gets a good look at him, she’ll know if she can fix him.”

Rhona and Pete arrived quickly, Leo in tow. The sedative was administered quickly, and after it took effect, Pete lifted the unconscious gander into his arms and carried him back to the car with Rhona. Charity and Vanessa kept Leo with them for the afternoon at the pub while Rhona and Pete went to the surgery. Charity worked, and she cut Marlon some slack so that he could watch Leo while Victoria kept the kitchen running.

Vanessa received a text from Pete saying that Rhona had decided to do what she could for the gander, and it was past teatime when Rhona called her. “Rhona, hi. How’d it go? Pete said you were giving it a shot.”

“Yeah, I’ve done my best.” Rhona replied tiredly. “Broken leg and a twisted wing, multiple lacerations, bruising. Almost definitely a dog attack. He should heal up fine if there aren’t any complications, but I don’t think I’ve ever treated a goose this bad before.”

“Thank you, I know today was your day off, kind of.” Vanessa said gratefully. Paddy had taken the weekend off to go away with Chas, but as Vanessa was out of commission, that left Rhona as the only vet at the surgery for three days, and she had taken one as an emergency callouts only day.

“Oh, that’s alright, you can make it up to me when you start back. I’ll be over to get Leo soon, thanks for having him.”

“No problem, you’ve watched Johnny countless times for me, and he’s had a blast with Marlon, so I didn’t do much, really.” Vanessa said as she watched all the kids playing together. “I’ll see you soon, bye.” She hung up and dropped onto the couch next to Charity.

“You alright, babe?” She asked, seeing how tired her girlfriend was.

Vanessa smiled at her. “I’m fine, Charity, just a little worn out, but the gander should be fine, Rhona says, so that’s good.” Vanessa raised her voice slightly so Noah could hear her at the kitchen table over the Paw Patrol playing on the tv.

“Yeah, that’s good.” Charity said as she shifted her arm to let Vanessa snuggle closer. Johnny and Moses had pretty much forgotten about the gander, their minds taken up with other toddler issues, but both Vanessa and Charity saw the crease in Noah’s brow slip away, and the small smile he shot to Vanessa.

**Author's Note:**

> Pleas leave comments and kudos!


End file.
